REAGAN WINS BY A LANDSLIDE, SWEEPING AT LEAST 48 STATES

REAGAN WINS BY A LANDSLIDE, SWEEPING AT LEAST 48 STATES; G.O.P. GAINS STRENGTH IN HOUSE

By HOWELL RAINES

Published: November 7, 1984

Ronald Wilson Reagan won a second term as President yesterday in an election that Republican leaders hailed as a sweeping personal triumph and a mandate for his policies.

Mr. Reagan secured clear landslide victories in both popular and electoral votes as he defeated Walter F. Mondale, the Democratic nominee, in at least 48 of the 50 states.

However, it remained unclear whether the powerful tide of support for Mr. Reagan ran deeply enough to carry enough Republican Congressional candidates into office to secure the ''historic electoral realignment'' that the President asked the voters to deliver.

Reagan Is Hailed

With more than two-thirds of the popular vote counted, Mr. Reagan led Mr. Mondale by about 59 percent to 41 percent.

The President waited until after midnight, Eastern time, to claim the election that continued his tenure as the oldest man to occupy the White House.

Entering the ballroom of the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles to the strains of ''Hail to the Chief,'' Mr. Reagan received a tumultuous welcome from a crowd that chanted, ''Four more years.''

''I think that's just been arranged,'' said Mr. Reagan with a grin.

Policy Extension Planned

He said he would use his mandate to extend the economic and military policies of his first term. But, as if answering criticisms made by Mr. Mondale, he said he would also devote his second term to limiting nuclear weapons and to ''lifting the weak and nurturing the less fortunate.''

''You know, so many people act as if this election means the end of something,'' Mr. Reagan concluded in an indirect reference to the fact that this was the last election night of his career. ''To each one of you I say, it's the beginning of everything,'' Mr. Reagan said. Then he stirred full-throated cheers by repeating an informal slogan of his campaign, ''You ain't seen nothing yet.''

Mondale Affirms Principles

Mr. Mondale, looking somber and drained, conceded shortly after 11:20 P.M., Eastern time. After complimenting the President on his victory, Mr. Mondale affirmed his commitment to the principles he had championed in a long, grinding campaign.

''Let us continue to seek an America that is just and fair,'' Mr. Mondale said. ''Tonight especially I think of the poor, the unemployed, the elderly, the handicapped, the helpless and the sad, and they need us tonight.

''I'm at peace with the knowledge that I gave it everything I've got,'' the former Vice President concluded.

His running mate, Geraldine A. Ferraro, the first woman to run for the Vice Presidency on a major party ticket, conceded defeat shortly after Mr. Mondale did, saying that her losing candidacy had helped fight discrimination against women.

Addressing a crowd at the New York Hilton Hotel, Mrs. Ferraro praised Mr. Mondale for selecting her, saying he had ''opened a door which will never be closed again.''

''The days of discrimination are numbered,'' she said. ''American women will never again be second- class citizens.''

Mr. Reagan was leading everywhere except in Minnesota, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, giving him a strong chance of attaining one of the largest electoral vote totals in the nation's history.

The Republicans also retained control of the Senate and made gains in the House of Representatives.

A series of hard-fought contests for House seats emerged as the major focus of the battle joined by the parties in this election. Democratic Congressional leaders predicted that Mr. Reagan's big popular victory would not convert into the large gains that the Republicans needed to assure ''ideological control'' of the House and to pave the way for a long-term realignment of the power balance between the parties. More Vote for Republicans

Interviews with voters as they left the polls throughout the country indicated that more voters were casting their ballots for Republican Congressional candidates than for Democrats.

The voter interviews by The New York Times/CBS News Poll also showed that Mr. Reagan and his running mate, Vice President Bush, were leading comfortably in Democratic strongholds in the Northeast and Middle West.

The Republican leads over Mr. Mondale and Mrs. Ferraro were much larger in the Southern and Western states that had hardly been contested by the Democratic ticket.

James A. Baker, 3d, the White House chief of staff, said that Mr. Reagan had apparently secured his second term with a victory of ''historic proportion.''

Mr. Baker said Mr. Reagan would use his mandate to push his conservative economic agenda, with additional cuts in Federal spending and ''an effort at historic tax simplification.''

As Mr. Reagan watched tallies of the vote on television, reporters asked him about the possibility of a summit meeting with the Soviet Union.

''Yes,'' he said, ''it's time for us to get together and talk about a great many things and try to clear the air and suspicions between us so we can get down to the business of reducing, particularly, nuclear weapons.''